Memory - do I have parity or non-parity

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob
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B

Bob

I'm confused on what type of parity my motherboard has!! The 128mB
PC100 SDRAM stick has 8 chips on it, plus one very small chip at one
end. According to crucial.com I should upgrade with non-parity. I've
already tried and failed to increase the memory on this machine by
buying a stick of memory from PC World. This was a disaster with the
BSOD and fatal exception messages etc. I'm now back on the original
128mB stick that came with my PC, and everything is fine.

Could there have been a conflict between the new and the old sticks of
RAM - leading to BSOD?

Oh yes and what parity should I upgrade with?

Motherboard MS-6178 1.0
Bus clock 100 mhz
PIII 700
 
Bob said:
I'm confused on what type of parity my motherboard has!! The 128mB
PC100 SDRAM stick has 8 chips on it, plus one very small chip at one
end. According to crucial.com I should upgrade with non-parity. I've
already tried and failed to increase the memory on this machine by
buying a stick of memory from PC World. This was a disaster with the
BSOD and fatal exception messages etc. I'm now back on the original
128mB stick that came with my PC, and everything is fine.

Could there have been a conflict between the new and the old sticks of
RAM - leading to BSOD?

Oh yes and what parity should I upgrade with?

Motherboard MS-6178 1.0
Bus clock 100 mhz
PIII 700
Click to expand...


..

Eight chips on the 128MB DIMM, indicates it is non-parity. The very small
chip on the end, is an SPD chip.

What was the DIMM that was incompatible? What was the DIMM size, and how
many chips were on it?

Your board uses an Intel 810 chipset. It supports memory chip densities
up to 128Mbit, and will support DIMMs that use 128Mbit or smaller chips.
Your current 128MB DIMM has eight 16Mx8(128Mbit) chips. DIMM sizes up to
256MB could be used on your board. But, you would need 256MB DIMMs that
have sixteen 16Mx8 chips.
 
.

Eight chips on the 128MB DIMM, indicates it is non-parity. The very small
chip on the end, is an SPD chip.

What was the DIMM that was incompatible? What was the DIMM size, and how
many chips were on it?

Your board uses an Intel 810 chipset. It supports memory chip densities
up to 128Mbit, and will support DIMMs that use 128Mbit or smaller chips.
Your current 128MB DIMM has eight 16Mx8(128Mbit) chips. DIMM sizes up to
256MB could be used on your board. But, you would need 256MB DIMMs that
have sixteen 16Mx8 chips.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Crucial.com suggest the following stick to
upgrade

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/PartSpecs.asp?imodule=CT16M64S4D8E&cat=RAM

but this is made up of 8 chips 16M x 64. I'm still not sure what I
would need to buy to upgrade.
 
.


Crucial guarantees that these DIMMs will be compatible with the Microstar
MS-6178 motherboard:
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.asp?model=MS-6178&DetailMB=Y&cat=RAM

The one you referred to is a non-parity 128MB DIMM, and is on Crucial's list of
DIMMs compatible with the MS-6178. It should work well on this motherboard.
The other DIMMs listed on Crucial's MS-6178 page should also work well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your further reply. The motherboard has a limit of 256MB
when is comes to RAM, or am I reading the spec wrong?

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=116&MODEL=MS-6178
 
Bob said:
Thanks for your further reply. The motherboard has a limit of 256MB
when is comes to RAM, or am I reading the spec wrong?

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=116&MODEL=MS-6178
Click to expand...



..

The Microstar page says "Support a maximum memory size of 256MB (64Mbit technology) or
512MB(128Mbit technology) SDRAM."

The largest unbuffered, non-parity, SDRAM DIMM which can be made with 64Mbit chips, and meet
industry specs, is 128MB. This would be a DIMM with sixteen 8Mx8(64Mbit) chips. Your board has
two DIMM slots, so using DIMMs with 64Mbit chips, you would be limited to a maximum of 256MB,
using two 128MB DIMMs.

The largest unbuffered, non-parity, SDRAM DIMM which can be made with 128Mbit chips, and meet
industry specs, is 256MB. This would be a DIMM with sixteen 16Mx8(128Mbit) chips.

Your board will support a maximum of 512MB, using two unbuffered, non-parity, 168-pin, 256MB
SDRAM DIMMs--each with sixteen 16Mx8 chips.
 
.

The Microstar page says "Support a maximum memory size of 256MB (64Mbit technology) or
512MB(128Mbit technology) SDRAM."

The largest unbuffered, non-parity, SDRAM DIMM which can be made with 64Mbit chips, and meet
industry specs, is 128MB. This would be a DIMM with sixteen 8Mx8(64Mbit) chips. Your board has
two DIMM slots, so using DIMMs with 64Mbit chips, you would be limited to a maximum of 256MB,
using two 128MB DIMMs.

The largest unbuffered, non-parity, SDRAM DIMM which can be made with 128Mbit chips, and meet
industry specs, is 256MB. This would be a DIMM with sixteen 16Mx8(128Mbit) chips.

Your board will support a maximum of 512MB, using two unbuffered, non-parity, 168-pin, 256MB
SDRAM DIMMs--each with sixteen 16Mx8 chips.
Click to expand...
Thanks Steven for all your help - now to crucial.com!!
 
The Microstar page says "Support a maximum memory size of 256MB (64Mbit technology) or
512MB(128Mbit technology) SDRAM."

The largest unbuffered, non-parity, SDRAM DIMM which can be made with 64Mbit chips, and meet
industry specs, is 128MB. This would be a DIMM with sixteen 8Mx8(64Mbit) chips. Your board has
two DIMM slots, so using DIMMs with 64Mbit chips, you would be limited to a maximum of 256MB,
using two 128MB DIMMs.

The largest unbuffered, non-parity, SDRAM DIMM which can be made with 128Mbit chips, and meet
industry specs, is 256MB. This would be a DIMM with sixteen 16Mx8(128Mbit) chips.

Your board will support a maximum of 512MB, using two unbuffered, non-parity, 168-pin, 256MB
SDRAM DIMMs--each with sixteen 16Mx8 chips.
Click to expand...

If I decided upon the 512MB option, would I have to upgrade any other
hardware. For example the PIII 700? Would I need to upgrade the BIOS?
Apologies for all the questions but I want to 'cover all the bases'
with this one - and so far this is the most info I've got on the
subject!
 
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